Don't Get MAD! Get GLAD!

Remember “The Man from Glad?” He was the company spokesman for the Glad Company who was featured in many of their television advertisements. In the Glad commercials he was always being summoned to various households in order to save families from their flimsy trash bags that would always tear open making a huge mess. Remember the slogan he brought and which made the Glad commercials so famous? "Don't get mad! Get Glad!" That isn’t just a great slogan for a trash bag company. It is also a great motto for followers of Jesus when it comes to the area of stewardship.

As we complete our 2-week mini-series on the topic of stewardship this Sunday here at the Gaylord E-Free Church in Gaylord, Michigan, we will be looking at 8 principles that the Bible teaches. One of those principles we will see is the “Cheerful Attitude” principle. This principle says that stewardship begins with loving, not giving. You can “give” without “loving” but you can’t “love” without “giving.” 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 tells us that we are not to give our money to the Lord “grudgingly” (that would be a SAD giver!). Nor are we to give our money to the Lord “under compulsion” (that would be a MAD giver!). We are to give our money to the Lord “cheerfully.” It is a word where we get our English word, “hilarious.” We are to give to God hilariously. That doesn’t mean that the amount we give is hilarious but rather that our attitude in giving is one of pure joy. This is a GLAD giver.

So what kind of giver are you? Are you a SAD giver? Are you a MAD giver? Are you a GLAD giver? Don’t get Mad (or Sad)! Get Glad!